“Proton is not doing well, I don’t want to give too many excuses, but there are many reasons” – Tun Mahathir

In an interview with paultan.org, Proton chairman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad gave us a rather frank admission of the current state of Proton and its various issues, as well as revealing what the national carmaker plans to do about them.

“We admit that Proton is not doing well. I don’t want to give too many excuses, but there are many reasons,” said the former prime minister.

Mahathir claimed that the company has inherited a detrimental brand perception among the public, especially with regards to quality. He added that the most infamous complaint – power windows not working – still make the rounds, despite the problem not occurring anymore. “Realising all this, we have made every effort to overcome these problems, and we have indeed overcome most of them,” he said.

One of those issues concerned the Preve, which Mahathir said was launched too early without proper testing, and hence caused teething issues to crop up. “Today the Preve is quite a popular car, and that is because we have made corrective actions,” he said.

Despite having taken steps to fix those issues, Mahathir said that the company is still “bugged by a bad reputation” – hence, he said that Proton will listen to the public with regards to their criticisms and correct whatever failures it has made.

As previously reported, Proton will launch at least three new cars this year, these being the Perdana – expected to be launched by the end of March – as well as the Persona and Saga. Mahathir said that he hopes the public will test drive these cars, adding that they should not pass judgement on them until they tried them out.

“Our tagline is ‘It’s in the Drive.’ If we were not convinced in the car, we wouldn’t say that – we would say that it is cheap, or that it is a national car. But we are saying that they are good to drive,” Mahathir said.

Watch the video above to see the full interview with Proton chairman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

After trying to pursue a career in product design, Jonathan Lee decided to make the sideways jump into the world of car journalism instead. He therefore appreciates the aesthetic appeal of a car, but for him, the driving experience is still second to none.

1. Its confirmed that the rear bonnet design is lame ugly like Persona Gen2 and surely annoy lots of potential buyers. Proton should redesign and move the number plate on bootlid above instead. Can you please for once get your design right?

2. It was revealed also black colour interior only for 2.0L model. Again another stupid decision that highly likely to annoy potential buyers. Damn it Proton just do it for 2.4L also lah. People here mostly hate white beige interior! Look at how Toyota scrambled to change Vios 1.5G interior to black colour from lame beige colour.

3. Why you delete ESC from 2.0L model? Put it back for God sake! So much for your slogan safety features for all regardless of price level.

4. That huge sloping teardrop C-pillar glass. Nobody did that kind of design anymore now. Look at the trend nowadays either cut-through C-pillar small line like Lexus/Nissan or that BMW kink glass. What, dreaming yourself as Asian Jaguar kah?

5. The rest is okay. Front, side profile is fine. Oh yeah, put chrome door handle too. It’s a must for such car. Entire window strip lines also should be in chrome.

6. Unsure about sunroof. Did you put it? Better do it as well. And for both model too! Then your car is luxuriously complete ready for global market offensive.

If you follow all the above rest assured you can steal lots of sales not only from individual buyers but from corporate company cars too. Don’t get us wrong, we like to see you succeed rather than ends up being lelong to some China firms for 1 Euro. Cheers::::!!

“Our tagline is ‘It’s in the Drive.’ If we were not convinced in the car, we wouldn’t say that – we would say that it is cheap, or that it is a national car. But we are saying that they are good to drive,” Mahathir said.

Please lower down the price..people will make comparison if the price still high..new perdana or accord..if the price is similar,for sure people will choose accord..yes,the quality is the most important thing..honda is proven,not proton..lower down the price,people will buy,if people said the quality is good,then you go..

Have anyone realized that the poblem pobably lies in the entire managment, marketing and engineers/designers/advertising firms involved in the decision making to design and launch the failed Gen2 Preve, Supima, Iriz and nw Perdana?? Most probably the same design team who flunked the Gen2 ergonomics retained to design the super ugly butt of Preve Supima and Iriz…they failed to read the market..they failed in their jobs..in other more advanced countries these bunch of clowns already sacked long long time ago…they even failed their English just look at their advertisments

Tun M, people dont support proton becoz by buying proton we are supporting the protection of auto industry which jack up the car prices and impact our purchasing power. Remove the protection and it will liberate the market, drive car prices down and make proton more competitive.

Dear Tun, Let not forget the racial affirmation policy extended into your corporation. Any thriving corporation hire good people based on merit, not race or color or sexual inclination or age or gender. Do that across the corporation and you will fix everything else.

This is Proton.
Proton is not a true National Icon like MAS.
Proton is not prestigious.
Proton does not compete internationally.
Proton has no booth in Tokyo Motorshow.
Proton has no cars in Gran Turismo.
Proton is not available in Fast & Furious. Maybe can be in Slow & Dubious.
Proton cars built feels unsafe due to poor material selection.
Proton has pretty bad resale value.
Proton existence has caused everyone to pay alot more for foreign cars.
Proton’s face is so thick complaining no rakyat support when we had given them 30 years.
Proton still exist because founder thinks it is a National Icon. Maybe it was meant to be, but it surely is not what he envisioned to be. Nobody is proud of it.
Don’t be like Proton.

Wow, you are one lucky chap.. Btw, are you being extra careful while opening your rear boot? Saw lots of saga on the road with the rear boot handle (above No. Plate) broken. The ONLY brand/car type with this widespread problem. Wonder what other plastics in the car that was broken too.. Air-cond vents cover?? Anyone??

I dont know why, but i put highly expectation after what Tun M said just like a ‘kene sebijik’ to all protonese but in implicit words. since this i’m eager to see what proton can do for their next projects. Come on proton you can do it.

Protection is necessary for any infant local industry. Otherwise it will be dead before it can start to grow when imports flood into the country in a level playing field. Malaysia is not a manufacturing powerhouse like America, Europe, China, Korea or Japan.

Unfortunately Proton did not take advantage of this period of protection to improve and advance. Time, opportunity and money is wasted. With WTO, AFTA, FTAs and TPPA it is now a level playing field whether Proton likes it or not.

Proton fails because there is no passion about the car…..Proton only created to create vendors, jobs, graduates, make pictures as Malaysia is developed country, proud of nothing, create opportunity and so on….so if Proton go back to basic which is create a ‘true’ car…then it will be different story.

Proton fails maybe because of you Dr. M still on the helm of Proton. Seriously we don’t want you and tell us mumbo-jumbo you are a politician and a medical Doctor – tell us what the heck do you know about cars apart from telling us some nonsense emission standard in the UK which does not apply to Malaysia even in the foreseeable future?

DRB if you have so much money please go and hire proper German guys like how Kia rebranded their cars, just hire Volkswagen guys (maybe now on the cheap) cos we will believe him more than Dr. M

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